Many modern display systems require projection of high resolution images or conducting image sensing across large, thin materials, such as substrates. These requirements continue to become more difficult to meet as the demand increases for greater size and resolution while simultaneously reducing cost and time. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional system of using a vacuum chuck to hold an object in a manufacturing process. As shown in FIG. 1, a workpiece 102 (also referred to as an object, which can be a substrate) is placed on top of a vacuum chuck 104. When the air pressure of the vacuum chuck is turned off 106 (left figure), the atmosphere within the chamber maintains a constant pressure around the workpiece 102 and within the vacuum chuck 104. When a vacuum chuck is turned on 108 (right figure), the air pressure decreases below the workpiece 102 which causes higher air pressure above the object 102 to want to fill this low pressure space below it. Thus, the workpiece 102 is pressed and held against the chuck 104.
In applications where the projection is used to expose a pattern or otherwise transfer an image, conventional methodologies and systems often call for the use of manufactured masks, which require long time and high cost to fabricate. In typical production environments and in particular in production runs, a low volume production would make the time and cost of manufacturing such a mask even more significant. Therefore, it would be desirable to have methodologies and systems that can generate the pattern on the fly.